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De prijzen voor benzine en diesel in Duitsland gaan vanaf 1 juli ineens flink omhoog, omdat de tijdelijke accijnskorting van 17 cent per liter wordt beëindigd. Tijdens de kortingsperiode verlaagde de regering onder bondskanselier Friedrich Merz de brandstofaccijns om de hoge energie- en olieprijzen door de spanningen in het Midden-Oosten te dempen.
Met het aflopen van de maatregel op 30 juni springt de pompprijs in één keer weer ongeveer 17 cent per liter omhoog, waarmee Duitse tankstations richting de 2 euro per liter voor benzine en diesel bewegen. Ondanks die stijging liggen de prijzen naar verwachting nog altijd onder het Nederlandse niveau, waar accijnzen en btw (21 procent) structureel hoger zijn dan in Duitsland (19 procent).
In de grensregio kan dat leiden tot extra drukte bij Duitse tankstations in de laatste dagen van juni, wanneer automobilisten nog willen profiteren van de lagere tarieven. Daarna wordt het prijsverschil met Nederlandse pompen waarschijnlijk kleiner, maar blijft tanken over de grens voor veel Nederlanders interessant zolang Duitsland de totale belastingdruk op brandstof lager houdt.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Wie na een patroon van aanhoudend huiselijk geweld haar of - meestal - zijn partner doodt, kan daarvoor binnenkort een zwaardere straf krijgen. Specifiek gaat het hier om gevallen waarbij geen sprake is van een vooropgezet plan, of dit niet kan worden bewezen. Rechters noemen dat doodslag en kunnen daar maximaal 25 jaar celstraf voor opleggen. Maar justitieminister David van Weel wil dit in specifieke gevallen verhogen naar maximaal 30 jaar of levenslang.
Preciezer geldt deze verhoging voor doodslag na een patroon van mishandeling of het uitoefenen van dwingende controle. Het laatstgenoemde houdt in dat iemand macht over diens partner uitoefent door diegene stelselmatig te vernederen, bang te maken of in zijn of haar vrijheid te belemmeren. Door de verhoging kunnen daders even hard gestraft worden als iemand die wordt veroordeeld voor moord, oftewel doden met een vooropgezet plan.
Deze maatregelen zijn onderdeel van een groter wetsvoorstel dat dwingende controle en psychische mishandeling strafbaar maakt. Van Weel heeft dit plan al eerder aangekondigd en publiceert maandag een eerste concept, zodat experts en betrokken burgers feedback kunnen geven.
"Psychisch geweld heeft grote gevolgen voor slachtoffers, maar is op dit moment niet altijd strafbaar. Daardoor kunnen politie en justitie te weinig optreden, ook in situaties die ernstig zijn of escaleren", licht de VVD-bewindsman toe. Hij hoopt hiermee femicide, oftewel vrouwenmoord, vaker te voorkomen.
They used to mean crusties, hippies, all-male lineups, near riots and burning toilets. Now, from Dorset to Inverness, there’s a festival – and a costume – for everyone. What caused this boom? And is there a dark side?
It’s 7pm on the first day of Gala festival in Peckham Rye park and dry ice drifts into the trees as grime MC Novelist, born just miles away, raps about a south London bus. “Four eight four! Going on raw on the 484,” he spits with a grin, bouncing like the sweaty moshpit in front of him. There are already hands in the air for this hyperlocal elegy when the DJ teases the next instrumental, Skream’s unmistakable Midnight Request Line – dubstep’s greatest ever anthem.
Gala is one of the first festivals of the now overflowing British summer season. That same weekend, Black Water County kicked off the Cursus cider and music festival in Dorset, Fatboy Slim headlined the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Sunderland, and scores more fizzed into action, from Elderflower Fields in East Sussex to Devauden in south Wales, Slam Dunk in Hertfordshire, Dot to Dot in Nottingham, as well as Sidmouth jazz and blues festival and Chippenham folk festival.
Continue reading...In 1993, she squeezed a $333m settlement from a Californian energy company in a scandal over contaminated water. Three decades later, she has a new target in her sights – and it’s global
When Erin Brockovich woke to find 30 emails from people from the same town, she realised something was going on. People email Brockovich all the time because of what happened in 1993, when she was instrumental in suing Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) on behalf of residents of the town of Hinkley, California, whose groundwater had been contaminated. The case resulted in a settlement of $333m – then the largest ever payout for a direct-action lawsuit. When she was immortalised by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, she became the hero we didn’t know we needed, a modern day Joan of Arc. She had won against PG&E with no formal legal training.
The emails she received a few weeks ago were about datacentres. In April, she put a callout on her website asking for anyone with concerns about one near them to get in touch. Within a month, 3,862 people had replied. Tech companies have needed datacentres to power their technology “for ever”, she says, but the new ones being built to power AI? “This feels like Hinkley on steroids.”
Continue reading...As tens of thousands are freed, female survivors are increasingly reporting gender-based violence in the compounds, previously thought to hold mainly men
Late one evening in October 2023, Sarah* felt labour pains starting. It was 11pm, but at the cyberscam compound inside Laos’ Golden Triangle, workers were logging on for a long night shift, scamming Americans online.
Every night, workers sat at their computers until the early hours, building fake profiles of glamorous, jet-setting women on Facebook and Instagram. Sarah trawled the web to find older men to target with messages, where she fawned over their jobs, asked how their day had been and exchanged photos of luxury travel and beach trips. Each conversation she had was meticulously designed to follow a multi-day script, and monitored by bosses who walked up and down the long rows of desks.
Continue reading...Two teams with plenty of connections meet in a ‘clash of titans’ at one of the World Cup’s most picturesque venues
Morocco manager Mohamed Ouahbi had just been asked what would inspire his players to justify the feverish expectation hanging over them. Would they turn to the example of history, or would they draw on something else? “The biggest motivation the players have is to put on the jersey and represent the country,” he began. “That is motivation enough to move mountains.”
It would be some feat if they managed to alter the geology of Cerro de la Silla, the claw-shaped double peak that overwhelms the skyline around Estadio Monterrey, where Morocco and the Netherlands will play in the World Cup Round of 32.
Continue reading...The attacks on Monday were the latest flare-up of violence between the two countries, which fought a weeks-long war in February
Pakistan has said at least 25 people were killed in airstrikes it launched targeting militants in eastern Afghanistan, as the Afghan government reported dozens of civilian casualties.
Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the operations were aimed at a group that it blames for a deadly weekend attack in Karachi, although Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours militants.
Continue reading...Value of some chip manufacturers have tripled, or more, driving Asia Pacific stock markets sharply higher
Shares in chipmakers have surged in the first half of this year as investors piled into companies that make the hardware underpinning the AI boom, according to analysis.
Investors have driven up the value of semiconductor and memory chip manufacturers, whose profits have soared during 2026, at the expense of some large software companies, which have fallen out of favour this year.
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